


Serendipity

by TheStarsUntold



Category: La casa de papel | Money Heist (TV)
Genre: Alternative Scene, Can you guess who the top is?, Eventual Smut, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, Tairobi rights, that’s an understatement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:20:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27439489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStarsUntold/pseuds/TheStarsUntold
Summary: When the elevator gradually comes to a halt, Nairobi thanks the gods. "Come on, niña.""Where we—where are we are w— are where?" Tokyo's words tumble from her mouth as she finds herself stuck in a sentence that consists of too many of the same syllables.Nairobi doesn't answer. Lips sealed, she drags her friend into the governor's office, locks the door, and sits her down in his chair. She then takes a seat in the chair across from his desk, where she previously sat during their barely successful first mission in this heist. Her hands come together and she takes a deep breath, before calmly asking, "Tokyo, what happened?"ORThis is an alternative scene that follows the one from 3x08, where Tokyo gets drunk and goes to find Nairobi, who tells her she’ll take her upstairs so they can talk over some coffee. In this fic, she actually does that instead of calling Denver to come pick her up.
Relationships: Nairobi | Ágata Jiménez/Tokyo | Silene Oliveira
Comments: 23
Kudos: 32





	Serendipity

**Author's Note:**

> This took WAY too long, I know, but it’s finally here, so I hope you enjoy! Let this help you forget that Tokyo kissed Denver in the actual scene that followed the one this one follows.

"But _I…_ " Tokyo's voice cracks and her lips start to tremble, "I had a good love story."

Nairobi's worried eyes scan Tokyo's face, gathering all the signs of bitter heartbreak. Her great sense of empathy makes her loosen the tight grip she had on the girl's arms.

Tokyo lets out a sob before taking another step towards the water tank. "I'm going to take a bath."

"No, you're not in the r—"

"I said I'm going to take a bath!" The younger woman shouts as she forcefully throws Nairobi's arms off of her.

Nairobi sighs, fingers massaging her nasal bridge. " _Enough_."

Before she can get any further, Tokyo's dangerous plan is ruined when the tall brunette bends down and throws her over her shoulder in one swift move.

"No, put me down! You—" Tokyo struggles until her drunk weeping turns to laughter, and her arms start waving about like a tube man at a car dealership. But not until the elevator doors close all the way, does Nairobi put the girl down.

"This— y—you know this is kidnapping, I could call the police on you. Where is the phone?" Tokyo giggles as she sloppily stumbles over to the button panel. Nairobi manages to get a hold of her again just in time to avoid a realistic Tower of Terror experience.

"Nena, we're _criminals_. The police are already after us."

"I won't be one anymore if I give them one. I w—I'll roll _you_ out the doors on a stretcher."

Tokyo's chortling, but Nairobi can't find the humor in the situation. She knows that all of this nonsense stems from severe dolefulness that Tokyo tried to drown with _several_ bottles of alcohol because she doesn't have a low tolerance. Seeing her in this state breaks her heart, and all she can do is keep the shorter woman trapped in her embrace as she eagerly waits for the 'ding' of the elevator.

When the elevator gradually comes to a halt, Nairobi thanks the gods. "Come on, niña."

"Where we—where are we are w— are where?" Tokyo's words tumble from her mouth as she finds herself stuck in a sentence that consists of too many of the same syllables.

Nairobi doesn't answer. Lips sealed, she drags her friend into the governor's office, locks the door, and sits her down in his chair. She then takes a seat in the chair across from his desk, where she previously sat during their barely successful first mission in this heist. Her hands come together and she takes a deep breath, before calmly asking, "Tokyo, what happened?"

"But why d— ask? I just told you Rio broke up with me and I told him we never had anything anyways."

Tokyo's words still linger deliriously and her laughter constantly interrupts. Nairobi knew from the start that it wasn't going to be easy to try and have a serious conversation with her, but there is no way she's giving up on her when she's in this pitiful state.

"Did you guys get into a fight?" She continues, twisting the top of the thermos she'd asked Denver to leave on the desk for her.

"No, I didn't even say anything. I just got into the bathtub with him, and he told me he could—couldn't be with me anymore. I think the—t—police messed him up, maybe they left him in the ground for too long. But then again, maybe they should've never dug him up, may—"

" _Tokyo_ ," Nairobi abruptly cuts her off while cautiously pouring some coffee into the thermos' top, that doubles as a cup, "Breakups suck, but you can't let it consume you like this. We're in a heist together, and we have yet to make it to the end. When we get there, you still have a whole world of things lying right ahead of you."

"But that was the plan," Tokyo wails out, arms flopping onto the desk, "We were gonna get out of here together and w— and return to the island so we could be happy again like we were before. We were gonna sleep in hammocks again, but now he's suddenly leaving it all behind, probably to go off with some other whor—"

"Cariño, what we're not going to do is channel rage. That leads to bad things, we both know that. Now please, drink th—"

" _Rage?_ Oh, so y— so I can't stand up for myself? I'm not allowed to defend myself when he goes ahead and takes a big _shit_ on all of what we had?"

"I never said that. I'm gonna need you to drink this right now, so we can—"

Tokyo attempts to stand up threateningly, but her lack of stability pulls her right back down. "No non— no that's not fair. I came here to save him, I risked my life for the millionth time just to bring him home and he jus— he comes in, and breaks my _fucking_ heart. He really walked in here, hugged me and thought: ‘I swear I’m forgetting something. Oh right, I was gonna leave my girlfriend in the _fucking_ _dust!_ ’" Tokyo raises her voice and tips over an inkpot with her elbow, that merely rolls her way just to plunk on the laminate floor.

"Tokyo, please just—"

"No, you can't talk! It was _toootally_ fine when you almost had me by the throat when I happened to notice your scar, and nobody said anything when you—y— almost _shot me_ through the door at the Spanish Mint all because I said something about your son! If Moscow wasn't there, I might've been where he is now with a bullet in my forehead! While you still have your plans, you never lost your chance at your ideal happy ever after. You can still go out there and steal your _fucking_ —"

Nairobi's fist hits the desk. " _Tokyo!_ "

"I don't want your stupid coffee!" Tokyo growls as she impulsively bats the cup off the desk and right into Nairobi's lap, who jumps up with a loud gasp.

"Joder, why do you have to be so damn stubborn?" The tall brunette hisses back in reaction to the still decently hot coffee burning her skin.

"Because I don't fucking understand it!"

Towel in her hand, Nairobi looks up to watch Tokyo drop her face into her folded arms. She instantly loses her ability to stay mad at her.

"Cariño," she sighs, lowering herself back into her chair, "What do you mean by that?"

"I don't understand what I did wrong. I missed hours of sleep thinking about him, while he was in there trying to forget about me. But I never meant for that to happen, I never meant for him to get arrested, I just wanted to pursue all of my plans in life. And I had the time of my life when I left that island, but if I knew this would be one of the consequences, I would've traded it all to stay with him."

Actually discussing the emotional matter, Tokyo seems to gravitate towards a more sober state, for she progressively refrains from slurring her words. Perhaps she isn't as drunk as Nairobi thought she was. Then again, her breath _reeks_ of alcohol, so it's either that or she's already sobering up somehow.

"And I would've…" Tokyo swallows, "I would've saved our relationship if I did."

Nairobi's hand slides across the desk to find Tokyo's. As she'd expected, it's trembling like a tuning fork, so she begins to rub her thumb over it in a tender motion.

"The island is something I never reached with the first love of my life because his life ended where mine was sold to the ones who killed him by my mother. I finally had a home again and someone to love me unconditionally, who would _never_ have me be taken away in handcuffs. But I had to take that for granted because I can never be happy with what I already have."

Nairobi squeezes her hand. "You're not about to call yourself selfish again for acting upon your freedom. I'm warning you."

"But I'm mad at him, while I left him alone on that island to spiral into insanity. He had to endure months of _torture_ to realize that I'm bad for him," Tokyo continues to direct her frustration at herself, and she locks eyes with Nairobi for her last sentence, "How horrible of a person must you be to unconsciously force someone to leave you for their _own good?_ "

Nairobi bites her tongue. Tokyo's eyes staring into hers as they shimmer with tears isn't a sight for sore eyes. She's always believed in the saying _'eyes are the windows to the soul'_ , but according to her, they can never be more eloquent than when a person holds tears within them. More than ever before does it become clear to her how delicate Tokyo is behind the feistiness she shows.

The tall brunette gets up. She drags her chair over to Tokyo's side of the desk, where she sets it down and sits, elbows resting on her knees. "Corazón, look at me."

When Tokyo turns her head, Nairobi gently presses her palms against the sides of her face. Captivating her gaze, she starts to shake her head. "You have no idea what you're talking about because you're not letting the right emotion speak for you."

Tokyo starts chewing on her bottom lip. That one sentence already hits harder than she'd prepared herself for.

" _I know you_. I know you're intelligent, I know you listen, and I know you remember every last word of what I told you back at the hideout. You took those words and you let them guide you because you're strong, mi amor. But you're also fierce. So much so, that you'll fly into a fit of rage before a single tear can leave your eyes. Nothing can break through the walls you put up and you know that's unhealthy, but you've still made a habit out of it. Because anger is the only advisor that allows you to fight back when life lets you down again."

The shorthaired brunette falls completely silent. While guilt still lingers in her mind, her rush of adrenaline leisurely washes away.

"You hold fire in those beautiful eyes of yours so often, that you can't see where you're going. You can't see what's waiting for you out there, as much as you can't see what's in here. Because the frustration you direct at yourself, stems from the idea that you just lost everything," Nairobi says before catching Tokyo's gaze again, that had dropped down to the floor, "Amor, listen to me. You can lose your temper all you want, but you're not losing anything. You're not losing your future, you're not losing your happiness, and you're certainly not losing any of us. _Nunca_. You're simply about to open a new chapter which isn’t easy, and that’s okay. Because pain is something that needs to be _processed_ in order for you to heal."

Nairobi’s words flow like a melody into Tokyo’s ears, and she can’t help but break the eye contact as she brings her chin up to blink back tears. Nairobi sighs, as this perfectly proves her point. Once again, she makes the younger face her.

“Niña, this is exactly why anger won’t help you. It never stops telling you to fight back. Because you think you’re preventing the pain from _entering_ , when you’re actually preventing it from _exiting_. The same applies to ‘giving it back’ when someone gives it to you. Because tell me, did it leave you when you gave it back to Rio?”

Wordless, Tokyo forces her lips to part. But before she can stammer out a response, Nairobi pulls her into a hug. She still tries, but the effort is in vain because the second she feels Nairobi's hand run through her hair, her eyes finally overflow. This feeling is personal to her because it brings her right back to a bitter moment she never forgot: Moscow's funeral. Tokyo recalls how, while everyone was dealing with grief, she was drowning in a bottomless pool of guilt. It kept screaming at her, accusing her of murder. But then she turned to her right, where Nairobi's endearing smile greeted her followed by her warm embrace, and everything went quiet. She felt salvation. Or should she call it redemption?

"Out of all people, you should know what _‘Ikigai’_ is," the older woman continues the conversation after a while, rubbing circles on Tokyo's back, "Rio is not your Ikigai, cariño. Stop convincing yourself that he is."

Tokyo chuckles as she starts wiping her eyes. "Would you kill me if I told you I have no idea what you're on about?"

"’Ikigai’ is a Japanese term that means _'purpose in life'_. It's your reason to live, which you should never tie to a person. Your life and your happiness shouldn't be dependent on someone else, especially not someone who isn't even family."

"Wow, Sergio really should've nicknamed you ' _Tokyo_ ' instead," the brunette responds after pushing herself back up to meet Nairobi's eyes again, and the two laugh in unison.

A sudden pause finds its way into the conversation when they both stop laughing. They enter a moment where it's just them looking at each other, speechless and uncertain about what's happening next. It’s like a short pause in time, that isn’t awkward nor intense, despite the fact that they both remain silent while the eye contact doesn’t break.

_But Nairobi became suspicious when she couldn't ignore the brief moment where Tokyo's eyes dropped down to her lips and jumped back up again._

When she does it again, what seemed like a coincidence now properly comes across as a suggestion. The corner of Nairobi's mouth twitches. She didn’t expect this, but that certainly doesn’t mean she’s not interested. If Tokyo's glances were subtle signs of a suppressed desire, solely to check whether the feeling is mutual, she's about to find out. 

Without a second thought, Nairobi makes a bold move and cups the back of Tokyo's neck to move in as if she has no time to spare. When their lips meet, Tokyo feels a strong rush of serotonin course through her body, and gripping the armrests of her chair, she completely abandons her lingering fear of Nairobi rejecting her. Never before has she experienced a kiss so tender and filled to the brim with passion. The warmth of Nairobi's breath brushing her cheeks sends shivers down her spine, which increasingly makes her urge for more. That's when Tokyo's hands find the zipper of the brunette's red jumpsuit.

"We probably shouldn't be doing this right now," Nairobi whispers, catching her breath, "The boys in the goldmine need my assistance, and you're drunk."

"I'm sober enough to have noticed _you_ moved in."

Tokyo's words crash right through Nairobi's last doubts. Carrying her up onto the desk mid-kiss, her right hand accompanies her lips in acting upon her lust as it slips into Tokyo's bra. The two let out breaths of pure bliss as every item that was once on the desk hits the floor. 

"You're remarkably quick to move on after you just had a breakdown, amor," Nairobi huffs, straightening her back a little to allow Tokyo to undo her bra. 

"Full offense to him, but I'm starting to believe I wasn't fully bullshitting when I told Rio we never had something ‘ _real_ ’."

The tall brunette giggles, but instantly feels guilty about it. "I should stop you from constantly maligning him."

" _Then do it._ "

And she does. After raising an eyebrow at her audaciousness, Nairobi slowly lowers her face into the crook of Tokyo's neck. Tokyo doesn't often find herself at a loss for words, but when Nairobi's tongue touches her skin and smoothly runs over it until she finds the perfect spot to leave a mark, no words can go further than the tip of her tongue. She still makes an attempt, typically, but her breath hitches and she's left with an open mouth that tries its best not to voice the pleasure. Especially when she feels Nairobi's hand travel further down her jumpsuit. She still truly believes she'll make it, until two of Nairobi's fingers find her entrance.

Lifting her head back up, Nairobi manages to cover Tokyo's mouth with a third make out session. However, this move doesn't serve its purpose as a way to drown out sound as much as she wished it would. Muffled moans continue to escape the shorthaired brunette as her hands struggle to clam tightly enough onto Nairobi's back. Without Nairobi's bra to hold on to, the far too effective accelerating motion of her fingers makes it hard for them to get a good grip.

There's no time for her to process all of this yet, but Tokyo is utterly stunned. She wanted this, craved this, and practically _begged_ for this, but she never expected Nairobi to be this _damn_ _good_. There really is no other word to describe it, other than—

" _Fuck_ ," the shorter brunette utters in between breaths, in a high pitch.

Nairobi doesn't respond. She simply cracks a side grin and tries to capture Tokyo's gaping mouth in another kiss, so their shared euphoric moment remains a secret. Certainly not because she's shy, in fact, she would love for everyone to know what she can do to the petite woman beneath her. 'Everyone' meaning _Rio_. Because yes, she loves that kid to bits, but _shit_ did he make _another_ stupid move. That, and the state of knowing that her game greatly surpasses his, kind of turns her on. However, it isn't worth the risk that the footsteps she'd heard passing by in the halls earlier will lead to an end to this golden moment.

Her arms dropping down from Nairobi's back onto the desk, Tokyo's jet black eyes widen. "Nairobi… Nairobi I—"

"Don't talk," the older woman sternly cuts in, no context provided.

"But I'm—"

" _Cállate_."

The word Tokyo's trying to utter is _'close'_ , but the one Nairobi uses to cut her off robs her of her ability to speak. Her mind goes blank as every muscle in her body tightens, toes curling as if she's been struck by lightning. But, replacing pain, there's a growing wave of pleasure heading her way that makes it increasingly difficult for her to breathe until…

"Nairobi?"

_Until it finally crashes into the shore like a raging tsunami._

As if the timing couldn't be worse, three knocks on the office's door follow the anonymous call for Nairobi. "Nairobi, are you guys okay in there? I thought I heard some ruckus, are you two fighting?"

_It's Denver._

Frozen in their tracks, the girls look at each other before returning their attention to the door. "Yes."

" _Ahw shit_ — okay, hold on."

As _soon_ as Nairobi identifies the sound of keys being rustled around, she quickly pushes herself back up and helps Tokyo in the process, who can't gather enough strength in her legs right away. The taller woman's arms shoot through the sleeves of her jumpsuit and in a single swift move, she zips both of their zippers back up.

"Alright, what seems to be th—" Denver asks before his eyes land upon the office tools that lay scattered around the room. "Oh my god, how bad was it?"

"Pretty intense, if you ask me," Nairobi says with a blank expression while slipping two rings back on her right index finger. Tokyo turns, suppressing the urge to laugh.

Denver clicks his tongue. "You both know we don't have time for this stuff. Please ju— wait, have you two made up already? You seem remarkably calm."

The two lock eyes again and smile at the same instant. "I'd say we did, yes," Nairobi nods.

"Alright then. Oh, Nairobi, I was actually looking for you to tell you that Bogotá needs your help."

" _Joder_ ," she sighs, eyes nearly rolling into the back of her head, "Men really can't do anything themselves."

"I take no offense in that and I'll see y'all later, I'm off for duty." Denver leaves the room and Nairobi follows, for they both have to take the elevator to get to their destinations. But just before turning the corner, she makes sure to throw Tokyo a memorable wink along with a kiss blown from the two fingers that just sent her into paradise. It makes the shorter woman’s cheeks flush, as she tenderly massages the hickey Nairobi gave her.

**_It was taken right there, a mental picture that never left my mind._ **

**_When I sat back down in the governor's chair after that rollercoaster of a scenario, I spent at least an hour just taking in what had just happened. All the while, the smile on my face never faded. It's a memory that conquered a golden place in my collection of sweet memories. From then on, I never forgot how one person turned one of the worst days of my life into one of the greatest._ **

**Author's Note:**

> Since I couldn’t really mention it in the fic: the reason why the very last bit is written in italics + bold and in past tense, is because it’s Tokyo narrating like she does in LCDP.
> 
> By the way, I'm @TheStarsUntold on twitter so if you want, stop on by!


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